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booking_along 's review for:
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
by Peter Swanson
there is something about swanson’s books that just doesn’t work for me.
i want to enjoy them, even like or love them, the plot always sounds fantastic, the beginnings are so promising but between the 50-100 page mark they start to go down hill for me and the ending is always utterly frustrating.
this book had the extraordinary pleasure of combing all the things i do not enjoy in crime books together.
now i do admit that that’s not really the author or the books fault! it’s mine! personal reading tastes do make and break a reading experience and it can be the worlds best book but if you don’t like how it’s done it will not be your personal favorite!
this book clearly falls into that category for me.
what tropes are those, you might ask?
- the gullible man that gets blinded by a beautiful woman/girl they meet years and years ago but feel as if there’s still something there!
- the super manipulative woman that is able to wrap EVERY man in too close proximity around her pinky without even trying or opening her mouth. her sheer presence is enough!
- crime left unsolved and completely unexplained and in many ways completely senseless and unnecessary crimes that make me question what the entire point even was because it could have made more sense without the murder?
- open endings in crime books
just not my thing!
if i take the time to read a mystery? i want the thing solved and wrapped up in a need little bow at the end!
so clearly this book was already ranking up negative points early on in the book.
but it didn’t get better for me at all mostly because the writing was pretty poorly done?
it was very graphic in moments that were not necessary to be as descriptive and simply written that way (to me at least) to give this short little crass shock moment of “did thy ready just say that? “was that really just written that way?” and not to add anything at all to the story!
now don’t get me wrong! i might not curse up a storm like a sailor personally but i am an american football fan and if you get introduced to anything in that sport it’s cursing and vulgar language!
so it’s not that i mind cursing and crass language.
but at the same time i don’t need to get a description of the color of his pee and the a conversation about it, even if it’s just a couple of sentences! i just don’t! not my kind style!
clearly another point against the book and me getting along - the writing.
and other where the characters.
i don’t know if at a certain point around page 50-52 i just mentally gave up on the book and just read it to finish it? and because of that the characters to me felt utterly underdeveloped and sloppily build up, if they even where build up to be actual thought out characters with individual specific human characteristics?
i am not a hundred percent sure which one it is.
i am guessing a mixture of me giving up and sloppy character development since that would fit with the rest of the book experience i had.
all in all?
not great.
there is potential but it’s not meet anywhere and the plot wasn’t my cup of tea so the entire book didn’t do it for me.
still if you love a very quiet mystery more focused on a character then actual crime and don’t mind ruff writing?
go for it!
if you need more? if you want actual not necessary fast paced but still some action actual bit of a crime thrill in there?
skip this one!
i want to enjoy them, even like or love them, the plot always sounds fantastic, the beginnings are so promising but between the 50-100 page mark they start to go down hill for me and the ending is always utterly frustrating.
this book had the extraordinary pleasure of combing all the things i do not enjoy in crime books together.
now i do admit that that’s not really the author or the books fault! it’s mine! personal reading tastes do make and break a reading experience and it can be the worlds best book but if you don’t like how it’s done it will not be your personal favorite!
this book clearly falls into that category for me.
what tropes are those, you might ask?
- the gullible man that gets blinded by a beautiful woman/girl they meet years and years ago but feel as if there’s still something there!
- the super manipulative woman that is able to wrap EVERY man in too close proximity around her pinky without even trying or opening her mouth. her sheer presence is enough!
- crime left unsolved and completely unexplained and in many ways completely senseless and unnecessary crimes that make me question what the entire point even was because it could have made more sense without the murder?
- open endings in crime books
just not my thing!
if i take the time to read a mystery? i want the thing solved and wrapped up in a need little bow at the end!
so clearly this book was already ranking up negative points early on in the book.
but it didn’t get better for me at all mostly because the writing was pretty poorly done?
it was very graphic in moments that were not necessary to be as descriptive and simply written that way (to me at least) to give this short little crass shock moment of “did thy ready just say that? “was that really just written that way?” and not to add anything at all to the story!
now don’t get me wrong! i might not curse up a storm like a sailor personally but i am an american football fan and if you get introduced to anything in that sport it’s cursing and vulgar language!
so it’s not that i mind cursing and crass language.
but at the same time i don’t need to get a description of the color of his pee and the a conversation about it, even if it’s just a couple of sentences! i just don’t! not my kind style!
clearly another point against the book and me getting along - the writing.
and other where the characters.
i don’t know if at a certain point around page 50-52 i just mentally gave up on the book and just read it to finish it? and because of that the characters to me felt utterly underdeveloped and sloppily build up, if they even where build up to be actual thought out characters with individual specific human characteristics?
i am not a hundred percent sure which one it is.
i am guessing a mixture of me giving up and sloppy character development since that would fit with the rest of the book experience i had.
all in all?
not great.
there is potential but it’s not meet anywhere and the plot wasn’t my cup of tea so the entire book didn’t do it for me.
still if you love a very quiet mystery more focused on a character then actual crime and don’t mind ruff writing?
go for it!
if you need more? if you want actual not necessary fast paced but still some action actual bit of a crime thrill in there?
skip this one!